Basic cooking tips

                                    Basic cooking tips

Making Homemade Bread Crumbs

Preparation time: 30 minutes

• Cut whatever leftover bread you are using into chunks. If you wish, you can remove the crusts, which will give you a more consistently textured crumb. (I don't bother myself - kind of hard to remove just the crust from a baguette!)
 
• Spread the chunks out on a baking tray and place in a 200°F oven for 30 minutes or until they are thoroughly dried out and turning a bit golden.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.
• Use a food processor to grind the cooled chunks into crumbs (takes about 1 minute on high and you may need to pulse it a bit to get things started).
• Pour the crumbs into freezer bags, date and freeze until ready to use. You can keep it in the freezer for up to three months.

How to Zest a Lemon or Orange

Here's a little review of how to zest a lemon, an orange or any other citrus fruit. Zest is often an ingredient in French recipes and shouldn't be skipped.

What is Zest?

Zest is just the very outer, brightly colored portion of the peel of a citrus fruit. The white layer that comes after is called the pith. Normally you do not want the pith in your recipes because it may add a bitter taste. The zest of a citrus fruit packs a powerful punch of flavor which will really brighten up your dish, so don't skip it if your not sure how to zest a lemon or orange.

Get Zesting

Many times citrus fruit are treated with a protective coating of wax. If at all possible, you should buy untreated fruit when you are going to use them for zesting. However, I have to admit, I've probably put some wax into various dishes through the years. In any case, you should definitely wash the fruit with warm water and then thoroughly dry it with a clean towel before zesting. Method 1. Use a vegetable peeler. Everyone has one of these in the kitchen drawer. Use a light touch because you want to get just the very outer layer of your fruit. You can quickly remove all the zest from an orange or lemon with a vegetable peeler, but you will then need to chop it finely for most recipes.Method 2. Use a zester! This takes a little more patience then a vegetable peeler but you will end up with lovely little strips of zest, which can be used to decorate your masterpiece. For most recipes though, you may want to then chop the zest more finely.Method 3. Use a Microplane grater. This must be the cooking tool of the decade based on its enormous popularity. It makes quick work of a lemon or orange, and the resulting grated zest is just right for adding to many recipes.

How to Make Croutons

 

Le Croûton

The word crouton comes directly from the French word croûte, meaning crust. They have been added to soups for centuries, and the grand classic French onion soup is always crowned with crunchy bread cubes. In France croutons might also be incorporated into an omelet or served on top of various vegetable purees.These days you can buy croutons in packages. Although salty and crunchy, most packaged croutons resemble cardboard more then anything else. Homemade croutons are flavorful and satisfying and making your own is dead easy -- definitely doable at the last minute.Besides adding great taste to salads and soups, croutons make excellent use of stale bread, a very common resource here in France. I usually use a baguette to make croutons, because that's what we have lying around. You can use other breads to make croutons, but this recipe works best on airy breads that are a bit dried out already. Some people cut the crust off of the bread before making croutons, but there's not much left to a baguette after you remove the crust, so I definitely leave it on.

Les Croûtons

 

Prep time: 15 min

Ingredients

• 3 cups or so of bread, cut into 1 inch cubes, or another size if you prefer
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Salt and pepper
• Garlic powder

Directions

1. Melt the butter and olive oil in a heavy skillet on medium heat.
2. When the butter is melted, add the cubed bread.
3. Stir and turn the bread frequently until it is golden on all sides - about five minutes.
4. Season to taste with salt, pepper and garlic powder

 

Cabbage Tips

• Choose cabbages that are tight and smooth.
• A cabbage should be heavy in your hand, this is an indicator of freshness.
• Remove any outer leaves that are damaged, cut in quarters and cut out the core. Rinse well with water.
• Pre-boiling cabbage for a brief time helps to make it more digestible. Rinse right after with cold water to preserve the vitamins and color.
• Some people add a slice of crusty, hard French bread to the water to cut down on the cooking odor.
• Cabbage makes a great addition to soups, like in this French stew called Poteé Champenoise.
• When cabbage is cooked well, it makes a fabulous side dish and can accompany many other things. Try this superb braised red cabbage recipe for a tasty introduction to this wonderful vegetable.